How to maintain an eviction against a former boyfriend/girlfriend

Q. I broke up with my boyfriend and now he won't move out, can I evict him?

A. If you and your boyfriend recently broke up and were sharing a place to live, you may have difficulty getting him out right away. You could try to move his belongings out yourself and change the locks but he may be able to claim that you took part in an illegal eviction in doing so.

In such circumstances where two people are living together and are in a relationship, it's rare that one party is charging the other rent. That's too bad because if the boyfriend refused to pay rent, you would have a much easier time evicting him. In future relationships, you should come to some written or verbal agreement setting forth the obligations of each party. It could be as simple as having one person pay certain utilities or a few hundred dollars a month in rent. If the boyfriend refused to uphold those obligations, you simply serve him with a 3 day notice to vacate based on those grounds (nonpayment of rent - and nonpayment of rent includes nonpayment of utilities if paying for the utilities was their rent). If the boyfriend still refused to leave after the 3 day notice expired then you just bring an eviction action.

Where there is no written or verbal agreement specifying that the boyfriend pay rent, you cannot evict because of nonpayment of rent as there was no obligation to pay rent. Since there is no lease, Ohio law assumes that the boyfriend is on a month to month tenancy. You have at least a couple options in this case. You can provide him with 30 days written notice that his month to month tenancy is expiring; however, the law has a strange way of counting 30 days. Since there is no lease, Ohio law assumes that each month begins on the first of the month, and it requires that the landlord give a full monthly rental period's notice.

So for example, if today were the 16th day of October and you provided the 30 days written notice of termination of month to month tenancy, your boyfriend would have to vacate by what day? If you said November 16 then you are wrong. Remember he has to get at least a full monthly rental period's notice. A full monthly rental period's notice would be from the 1st of the month until the last day of the month. Legally, your boyfriend would have until the last day of November to move out.

If he is still living there on December 1, at that point you would give him a 3 day notice to vacate on the grounds that he illegally held-over his tenancy since he didn't comply with the 30 days written notice. After the 3 day notice expired you could file the eviction.

You could also try to avoid all this delay and get him out sooner by negotiating his departure. If money for a new place is an issue for him then you could offer to pay him money if he is out of your place by a certain date. You may want to put this in writing and you may not want to pay him any money until he has left and returned the key. Landlords have been known to do this with problem tenants as a way of saving a lot of time and money that the eviction process normally causes.

If you found this information helpful and are looking for more information or would like to support this website, please consider ordering a copy of our Landlord's Guide to Ohio Evictions .

Disclaimer: The information provided on ohiolandlordtenant.com is not intended to be legal advice, but general information related to legal issues commonly encountered. The law in your state may be different from that discussed here. The facts in your case may be different too.

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